3 h. ago ‘It’s kind of my alter ego, the sex thing’: Lola Young on addiction, writing about pain and being mixed race

The south Londoner’s honesty about her vices has made her a gen Z hero: she was in rehab when her biggest hit was blowing up. Singing about sex on her new album, she says, is a way to mask the painLast November, Lola Young was finally having her moment. Messy, a track from her second album, This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway, was blowing up on TikTok. Celebrities such as Kylie Jenner were using the track in their clips, and it had quickly permeated the barrier to the real world, becoming a staple of Uber rides and Christmas shopping trips in a matter of days. Even if you wouldn’t recognise Young if she passed you on the street, you’d know the song and its ironclad hook: “Cause I’m too messy! And then I’m too fucking clean ”Other stars might have taken a moment to enjoy the spoils, or strategise on how best to capitalise on the newfound success. But as Messy was rising in the charts, Young was checking into a rehab facility to deal with a cocaine addiction that had dogged her for “a lo...

Politics

3 h. ago ‘Addiction teaches you a lot’: breakout pop star Lola Young on sex, substances and self

The south Londoner’s honesty about her vices has made her a gen Z hero: she was in rehab when her biggest hit was blowing up. Singing about sex on her new album, she says, is a way to mask the painLast November, Lola Young was finally having her moment. Messy, a track from her second album, This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway, was blowing up on TikTok. Celebrities such as Kylie Jenner were using the track in their clips, and it had quickly permeated the barrier to the real world, becoming a staple of Uber rides and Christmas shopping trips in a matter of days. Even if you wouldn’t recognise Young if she passed you on the street, you’d know the song and its ironclad hook: “Cause I’m too messy! And then I’m too fucking clean ”Other stars might have taken a moment to enjoy the spoils, or strategise on how best to capitalise on the newfound success. But as Messy was rising in the charts, Young was checking into a rehab facility to deal with a cocaine addiction that had dogged her for “a lo...

Politics

39 h. ago A personal dealer on the staff and a terrifying alter ego even he was scared of... this is what it was really like to live with David Bowie

The last surviving member of David Bowie's Spiders from Mars band says the singer was a 'strange bloke who you could not discuss the football scores with'.

Economics

7 d. ago ITV star Leigh Francis furious people 'keep calling him' Keith Lemon as he issues career update

Leigh has not potrayed his comic alter ego since back in 2023

Politics

7 d. ago Celebrity Juice's Leigh Francis 'done' with TV career as he rejects lucrative offers

Lejson, who is best known for his alter ego Keith Lemon, has said he's not been pitching new TV ideas for 'ages' and has even turned down offers

Politics

1 week ago Coronation Street confirms Betsy Swain 'wake up call' in emotional car crash link

Sydney Martin has confirmed her Weatherfield alter-ego will get a 'wake up call' in upcoming scenes as a car crash takes place

Events

1 week ago Former EastEnders star Samantha Womack open to exploring return to soap

The 52-year-old actress' alter ego Ronnie Mitchell died on her wedding day to Jack Branning

Politics

1 week ago Vilhelm’s Room by Tove Ditlevsen review – a portrait of catastrophic mental illness

Originally published a year before her death, the Danish author’s final novel is an autofictional suicide noteTove Ditlevsen’s last novel, Vilhelm’s Room, was originally published in Denmark in 1975. As it begins, the protagonist, Lise Mundus, has just been abandoned by Vilhelm, her husband of 20 years. He’s a celebrity newspaper editor; she’s an acclaimed writer with a history of addiction. From a bed in a psychiatric ward, Lise publishes a lonely hearts ad: “Recently escaped a long, unhappy marriage – aged 51, but youthful in spirit – wonderful son, aged 15 – household literary name – summerhouse – large flat in the city centre – temporarily incapacitated by a nervous breakdown – prefers a motorist.”The ad is seized upon by Lise’s malicious upstairs neighbour, Mrs Thomsen, who shows it to her young lodger/lover, Kurt, hoping he can financially exploit Lise. Kurt is duly installed in Lise’s home, but finds himself treated there with total indifference. Lise is wholly cons...

Politics

1 week ago Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert on leaving her marriage for a dying friend: ‘She said, Let’s just live balls to the wall until I die!’

One was a happily married and internationally famous writer, the other a cool, funny hairdresser and ex-drug addict. Then a shock diagnosis pitched them into an intense love affair ...Sometime in the summer of 2017 I wrote in my journal, “Jesus fucking Christ, please save me.” I was trapped in hell, and I could see no way out. Our beautiful, sunny, two-bedroom penthouse apartment in the East Village – which I had rented for Rayya to make her happy in the last months of her life – had become a dungeon of misery, danger, degradation, drugs. Rayya kept the shades drawn at all hours of the day, not only because the light hurt her eyes but also because she had become intensely paranoid that she was being watched by the police, and that they were coming for her.And, to be honest, the police might very well have come for her (for both of us, actually), because our apartment now contained thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of cocaine – some of which Rayya was cooking down and shootin...

Events

2 w. ago Coronation Street's Carl Webster star admits 'spark' as he speaks out on affair twist

Jonathan Howard has said his Weatherfield alter-ego likes 'living life on the edge' as he spoke out on his latest storyline twist

Politics

3 w. ago Emmerdale star Mike Parr teases new baby and DNA twist in bombshell storyline

Ross Barton recently found out that Charity Dingle is pregnant after the pair shared an illicit romp in Emmerdale. Mike Parr has teased mayhem ahead for his alter ego.

Events

3 w. ago Wintry chills and an alter ego in Edinburgh, plus surreal toys in London – the week in art

Wintry chills and an alter ego in Edinburgh, plus surreal toys in London – the week in art  The Guardian

Politics

4 w. ago Coronation Street's Sally Carman teases upcoming feud with soap legend amid affair

Sally Carman, who stars as Abi Webster on Coronation Street, has teased that her alter-ego will become the latest in a long line of feuds for Street legend Tracy Barlow

Politics